Thursday, January 31, 2013

Team, hope to see most of you tonight. Looking forward to catching up over a few beer. Be here at 7:30pm!

If you are a POTENTIAL member and want to come meet the crew and find out what this being part of a cycling club is all about, please come out tonight, have a beer, and meet a few of us. We will not bar the doors and ensure you sign up before leaving :) This is a casual get together to get pumped for the coming season!

Thomas has put together this year's clothing order database and ordering center. It is now live and ready to be used. If you have any questions, you can email me or Thomas. Here is the link to the order center. You must be a 2013 registered member to order clothing.

Please look at the sizing charts carefully and the descriptions of the clothing on the Champ-Sys website. We don't 'stock' clothing, we order exactly what is prepaid for. There are several different 'levels' of jacket, so it is worth knowing which one to order. As for the bib shorts, we are offering Champ-Sys' best short as an option this year, the 'RAZOR'. Thomas and I tested it out last year to ensure it's quality and it is worth the extra expense if you find the current shorts don't live up to your expectations. I find all the shorts to be good quality and long lasting, so it is entirely a personal preference thing. Bigger dudes may find the RAZOR with the 'endurance' pad to be better comfort-wise.

Technical 'running' shirts are available this time around as well. I have had this request several times to include this as something comfortable to wear before and after events and when at the gym doing weights or stretching. Champ-Sys call them 'Technical Performance Jersey', but they are really just tech running shirts.

Make sure to thank Thomas for all his hard work and expertise putting this order website together. The club really appreciates him offering his skills to make everyone's ordering process easy and seamless.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Team, along with being part of a great exciting group, you can be proud that we as a club are making a positive change to Calgary.

I had an extremely exciting meeting with the Parks Foundation Calgary on
Friday about the charity that our cycling club has been championing for
the last 2 years. The plan is to create a useful athletic facility for novices
to elite athletes alike that is also family friendly and accessible by all.
Coupled with the amazing Calgary Greenway
Project (which will be essentially a 113km safe training area for cyclists!), a rubberized interval running track of two lengths (400m and 800m)
will be created with a youth park at it's center and a warm up area that
includes an informative exercise interpretive center for youths and novices. The
idea is to have a fun place for children to play within eyesight of their
parent's exercising/training. This way youth can grow up watching their parents
take self-development and exercise seriously and hopefully follow in their
footsteps. The interpretive center will be designed to encourage older youths
and adult novices to use the facility by including tips on etiquette, sample
progressive training routines, suggested lifestyle ideas, and intermediate fun
goals to achieve along their way to ingraining exercise into their life habits.
There will be a Jason Lapierre Memorial overlooking the children's park, the cycling pathway and the running track outlining his work and commemorating the importance of great youth
athletic coaches to our society and will include a unique design that tries to
capture his passion for skiing, running, and cycling. I am extremely excited to
see this project through completion. Our club has been slowly but steadily
raising funds for this through the registered charity umbrella of the Parks
Foundation Calgary and has its own account named the Jason Lapierre Memorial,
account #400960. From anywhere on the Calgary Greenway, which will eventually
encompass the city, a family will be able to ride their bikes (with a
Chariot en-tow) to the facility, have a safe place for their children to play,
and watch their parents exercise. This will be a fantastic resource for Calgary and I am honored to be part of its creation and honored to be part of a club that encourages and values this type of development in our city.

I will bring the plans to the party on Thursday night for people to have a look at!

Friday, January 25, 2013

It would be great, but not required if you joined the club for 2013 before the AGM if you were a member in 2012. The link is here.

NOTE: ALSO, the 2013 STC clothing order will be live VERY soon.

If you are a currentor potential STC member make sure to come. This is more of a chance to spend a few hours hanging out with (or meeting) your teammates over a few beer and pizzas than anything too formal. I think of it as a 'Party with Direction' not a meeting.

I always like to talk a bit about what worked and what didn't in the previous year. This way we constantly keep evolving and remain current. We'll chat what is in store for 2013 as well.

- Lampros is bringing a TON of pizza from his place Volos Pizza !!
- STC is buying a TON of beer and wine. Make sure to comment here is you have a special request!

- Harley will give us an overview of the super successful Thursday Night Training and any planned changes.

- As usual, we will continue to make our Women's Initiative a priority, and we'll have some discussion on this.
- Club members that did WNS will be reminded they are Secondary Crankmaster members and there is a party on Feb. 9th at the Glencoe.
- Dave will talk about the benefit of the Tues night Crits!
- Trev will talk about the clothing order if there are any questions.

- Tom will talk about his 'Weekend Banff Ball Buster' on April 27/28 and his 'Saskatoon or Bust' project on July 14/15.

- Darcy will discuss the Prairie-Roubaix IV.

- Trev will talk about the JayLap Version 5.0 ( I can't believe this is the 5th annual!)

- Mike will let us know what worked for the WNS series and how well the club represented in 2013.

- Paul or Thomas will talk about the Calgary Wheelers Ride. Pump us up for this. I want this to be a 'go to' ride for Saturdays this year.

- Thomas will talk about Penticton in May. And Trev will talk for Marie who is coordinating the family/kids in Penticton.

All this will undoubtedly be interspersed with Godfrey telling us several stories about various rides throughout the year and Tom letting us know how badly he suffered on his last Garage of Pain training session.

Of course, if you would like to discuss something or propose ways to improve, then email me now, or simply start talking at the gathering.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Hey guys, I am the race director for the 8th race in the 10-race winter series put on by the Calgary Road Runners Club. I was wondering if anyone has between 1.5 and 3 hours to help me host this race midday on Sat. Feb. 9th.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Team, I raced on Sat. at the Nose Creek XC 6.5km race put on by the other wicked club in town, the Calgary Road Runners (who don't do much road running :).

Anyway, I always put together these little videos, but I was fortunate enough to be in a great battle with David Guss for this one. He started out extremely quickly and I gassed myself trying to catch him and he would surge from the front and force me to match his attacks through the race! It was awesome and just like a two man bike race. Me being the lesser racer on the day, was forced to follow his attacks. In the last 4min, I knew I had to do something as I had seen him sprint before and didn't want to be on the bad side of that, so along the final long straight stretch (at 26min into the video) I tried to come around him multiple times. And just like in cycling, if your attacks are weak and don't surprise your opponent, they don't get anywhere. You can see David respond to each of my surges, wicked! I finally rallied enough to lay down a real attack in the final 200 meters and thought I had taken it....(cliffhanger) ... great finish and great race! Congrats to David and thanks for the fun.

Also, Lance Armstrong is chatting to Oprah on Thursday evening at 8pm. I think it will be streamed simultaneously if you are like me and don't have TV. If someone wants to post a direct link to the stream, that would be great.

Friday, January 4, 2013

We had an amazing 2012 with tons of training, opportunities, racing, and fun times. Everyone's 2012 membership ran out on Dec. 31st and is now ready to be renewed. I am really looking forward to 2013 to continue to build on the training opportunities, the women's team, our charity, and of course tons of racing!

We will be doing the first round of clothing orders soon, and you need to be a current club member to order, so register now to ensure you are emailed to make sure to get in on the kit when we post it later this month.

I always get these questions since it is a little confusing for a new cyclist. So find the level you need. You ONLY need an ABA RACE LICENCE if you plan on racing bigger races that have commissaries (referees) .

Q.) If I just want to train and hang out with the team on the STC club rides and socials, but don't plan on racing what do I need?

A.) All you need is a team membership! We pay your ABA CLUB insurance for you. It would be cool if you got at least an STC jersey, but it isn't required. You don't need to sign up for anything through the ABA website.

Q.) If I just want to train and hang out with the team on the STC club rides and socials, and would like to come out to the little STC CLUB races you occasionally put on, what do I need?

A.) All you need is a team membership! We pay your ABA CLUB insurance for you. It would be cool if you got at least an STC jersey, but it isn't required. You don't need to sign up for anything through the ABA website.

Q.) If I want to train and hang out with the team on the STC club rides and socials, would like to come out to the little STC CLUB races we occasionally put on, and take part in the Wed. night race series hosted by the Crankmasters, and maybe even do the Prairie-Roubaix and other NON-ABA races of that level what do I need?

A.) All you need is a team membership! We pay your ABA CLUB insurance for you. You should get at least an STC jersey. You don't need to sign up for anything through the ABA website. You also have to sign up for a Crankmaster secondary membership once it becomes available if you want to do the Wednesday night series (we will post it).

Q.) If I just want to train and hang out with the team on the STC club rides and socials, would like to come out to the little STC CLUB races we occasionally put on, take part in the Wed. night race series hosted by the Crankmasters, maybe even do the Prairie-Roubaix and other NON-ABA races of that level, and also take part in full races that are sanctioned by the ABA for points and have commissaries what do I need? (This means do races like Banff Bike Fest, Pigeon Lake Road Race, Jason Lapierre Memorial)

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Years everyone,
hope all had an exciting and safe night.I am officially throwing down the gauntlet early this year.I am offering meals, beer or booster
juices to anyone who challenges and wins a mountain top finish this year in
Penticton.Teams and handicaps are
allowed.For example a team mate
to give you a draft, or a head start, or both.Be creative.I’m
looking forward to seeing everyone on the road soon!J